As They All Start
by The Queen Of Mischief
Summary: As most great stories start, this one starts at the library. But that stupid Slytherin Blaise Zabini is sitting in her spot! What is a girl to do? Make him go away, of course! But it's not as easy as it seems... BH of course. Fluff! R&R! Enjoy! REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

She hated that stupid Slytherin with his all-knowing smirk and that look in his eyes that said "Look at me; I'm hot and smart!"

Of the latter there was no doubt, of course. He _had_, after all, tested top alongside her.

The first part, however, troubled her. Was he hot? He was certainly attractive enough, with brown, chocolatey eyes and black, inky hair, whitish skin and a set of perfectly white teeth that made him seem all the more superior. He was practically sloshing around ankle deep in swooning women.

Much to her disgust, some of these women were Gryffindors. Insulting, she thought angrily, watching Blaise Zabini across the Great Hall, surrounded by a wall of at least fifteen girls, with whom he was flirting like there was no tomorrow. He never seemed to actually go out with one of them, however.

"Hermioooooneeee?" brayed Ron in his annoying voice, waving his hand up and down in front of her face.

"Do stop that, Ronald, it's most annoying," she said, more formally than she had intended to.

"Are you PMSing or something, 'mione?" he asked crudely, smirking, and, rather than looking cute, or superior, as Blaise Zabini- er, not Blaise Zabini, just some normal person. She didn't know how that slipped out- did, just looked like a cross between a cello in pain and a donkey with laryngitis.

She inwardly giggled at the thought of a donkey with freckles playing a cello on a stool and shattering windows with the sound produced.

However, to Ron, she glared. "Ronald Arthur Weasley, you are the most insensitive _pig _I have ever met!"

Ron wriggled his eyebrows. "It's why the ladies love me,"

Hermione almost choked on her own spit. The only 'ladies' Ron could ever communicate with were teachers! Iwww. Bad, _bad _mental image. She would never look at McGonagall in the same way again.

She left the room, struggling not to smile and went to her sanctuary, her little nook of safety, her cozy corner. The library's top left corner, far away enough from the general crowds and near enough so as to not arouse suspicion.

Today, however, she was in for a surprise. Blaise Zabini sat nonchalantly there, reading a book, looking engrossed, as though he _owned _the place.

_She _owned- well… not _exactly,_ but still- that tiny corner. It wasn't much to ask!

She stormed up to him and said "Why are you sitting in my spot?" Well, demanded is a more appropriate term.

He raised an eyebrow, amused. "Last I recall, you can sit anywhere in the library that isn't occupied. Has there been a change in the rules?"

Hermione floundered for words for a second, and then regained control of herself. "I always…_always _sit in _that spot _and you _know it._" She was using the death/shark lawyer voice, the one her mum had taught her 

when she was little. It generally scared people into doing what she wanted. But she only used it when absolutely necessary.

Zabini, however, seemed unfazed. "No, actually, I didn't. I don't sit around, watching you all day, you know."

Hermione turned an embarrassing shade of scarlet. "I never said-"

"Besides," he continued, coolly, "what do you want to do in such a secluded corner? Is it so private? Are you writing in your diary?" he now smirked, the typical, Slytherin smirk.

Hermione blushed even more. "Would you just go away?"

"No. I was here first. So you can like it or lump it. There are plenty of tables left. If you find my presence so very distracting then you can go somewhere else."

Hermione Granger did not give up so easily.

She muttered something unintelligible before falling gracefully not too far away from him.

He raised an eyebrow and turned back to his book.

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her homework.

Around an hour later, the crowds started to peter out, as people finished their homework and reading.

Hermione and Blaise sat in their original positions and continued reading.

Forgetting it was Zabini, she asked, "Er, Blaise? Could you help me with this? I can't seem to get my head round algebra."

The momentary shock on Zabini's face was quickly replaced with a smirk.

"Hold on! Are my ears deceiving me? Or did Hermione Granger, know-it-all Gryffindor, actually ask a lowly human being such as myself a _question_?"

"Fine, if you want to be like that, don't help me." She said huffily.

"No, no, I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to respond to that."

"Oh."

"What is it you need help with?" he asked, sounding remotely sincere.

"This." She showed him.

So he helped her.

Just then, a girl came. She looked about first year.

"Um," she said in a shaky voice, petrified to talk to a 7th year. "Professor Dumbledore wants to see you."

They glanced at each other. "Who?" asked Hermione after a moment.

"Both of you…" she was pale with fright.

"Er. Okay. Thanks." Said Blaise.

She managed a tiny smile before dashing off.

"What would Dumbledore want to see the both of us for?"

Blaise shrugged. "Dunno."

"Shall we?"

"Ladies first."

She made a face and walked out of the library.

Halfway there, they heard a girl scream "There he is!! Hey girls! It's Blaise Zabini!"

There was a chorus of shrieks and Blaise looked terrified. "Run." He said.

When she raised an eyebrow, he repeated "Run!" they were soon being pursued by a mob of incredibly horny girls.

"See?" he said as they were safely going up to Dumbledore's office. "If you had just stood there, then you'd be a Gryffindor pancake. You owe me eternal servitude." He sounded matter-of-fact.

She giggled. "How are things on Planet You-Wish?"

He grinned.

When they reached his office, Dumbledore was reading some papers with a bag of lemon drops by his side.

"Hello, children." He said.

They pulled faces at each other upon the 'children' remark.

"Please, do sit." He said, looking up from his papers.

They did.

"Now, it is my pleasure to inform you that you are the next Head Girl and Head Boy."

Both of them gaped at him, then turned to each other and gaped some more, then turned back to him and gaped again.

They were then made aware of the presence of Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape.

"Minnie will show you to the dorm which you will share, and give you your duty lists. You are expected to be role models for all the other students and all that waffle which I'm sure you already know."

They nodded, still dumbfounded.

"Minnie, if you will," he gestured to 'Minnie' who looked thoroughly embarrassed.

"Come along." She said, trying to regain her status.

They hurried after her and went to the Head dorms.

"Here we are," she said. "The password is that." They looked around to see what 'that' was, but found she was looking straight at them.

"What?"

"That. The password is 'that'."

"Oh…"

"Here are your duty lists. You will begin your duties today. I'll leave you to explore your new homes now. Goodbye and good luck." She left.

"Whoa." Hermione breathed, once they had entered the dorm.

"Whoa is right." Said Blaise.

The whole room was painted blue, except the ceiling, which was magicked to look like the sky.

The room had a fireplace and lots of sofas. There was a bookrack with books that they would normally not be able to access in the library, due to their popularity.

There were large bean bags, lots of them and a coffee table. At the corner was an espresso machine that they supposed had been magicked to work in the school, which normally restricted the use of electronic equipment.

There were two staircases, one to Blaise's dorm and one to Hermione's, although both were joined by a corridor.

They went into their own dorms. Hermione's had a red theme, with red bed clothes a much lighter shade on the walls. There was a large chest at the foot of the bed and a bedside table at its side. There was a bathroom, which was large and quite luxurious. And of course, there was a study table and wardrobe. There was even a small bookshelf for her textbooks and such and a small cupboard for her bag and cauldron.

Blaise's room was the same, except with a blue theme.

This, Hermione thought, is going to be so much fun!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hermione couldn't sleep. She missed her new baby brother, whom she had first seen in the Christmas holidays last year. She missed her parents too.

She loved playing with her little brother, Alex, holding his little hands in hers…

She sighed and got out of bed. She padded down in her plain blue pajamas and headed for the espresso machine.

"Oh, hello." Said a voice from the sofa. She jumped. Oh, it was only Blaise.

"Hi," she smiled briefly.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"No."

"Me neither."

She got her espresso and went to sit with him. He had a cup too.

"I was thinking about my little brother, Alex," she admitted, smiling at the thought of her adorable sibling.

He smiled. "What's he like?"

"He's the most lovable little thing you ever saw. And he's plump and cuddly. He absolutely _adores _his teddy and drags it around everywhere with him. He's about as tall as my shin when he stands up, which he's just learnt to do. He loves to look at pictures in books and he points at them so innocently! He's an angel!"

Blaise smiled again, almost wistfully. "He sounds wonderful."

"What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

"I have a half-sister, who's about four. My mum died giving birth to me, and turns out my dad had another lover, cos the minute she died, he got married again. And now I have a sister."

"Oh." She tried to find a positive side in his situation, but couldn't. She had a friend who's mother had died giving birth to her, and now she was blaming her late mother's death on herself. It must be hard for him, she thought.

"She's nice, I suppose. Her name is Mary and she always wears her hair in two little pigtails. She's obsessed with Hannah Montana and her greatest grievance is not having found a boyfriend yet." He rolled his eyes here.

She grinned. "So you know Hannah Montana?" she was surprised that his family was familiar with TV.

"Yeah. Jean, my stepmom, is a muggle. So when she moved in, the giant flat-screen came with her. And it's not as if Mary doesn't sing those ridiculous songs twelve hundred times a day." He rolled his eyes and said in a hilarious falsetto "Nobody's perfect, I gotta work it, again and again till I get it right! Blah, blah, blah. Really, I fail to see any meaning behind her songs."

Hermione giggled. "I have no comment."

"And she harps on about how hot some band called the Jonas Brothers is. She says "Joe is 'smexy', Nick is 'adorable' and Kevin is blah. Whatever 'smexy' and 'blah' mean." He raised his gaze heavenwards.

Hermione laughed. "They are in a way. Joe really is hot. And Nick is very cute."

Blaise looked at her in horror. "Not another fan! I'M SURROUNDED! SAVE ME!"

She giggled. "Come on, every muggle born knows these people. Ask her about Mika. Or James Marsden. Or James McAvoy. She'll know."

"Who are these people?"

"Mika is an incredibly hot singer with an amazing voice. James Marsden is the incredibly cute co-star in 27 Dresses and James McAvoy is just really, really hot. He was in Penelope."

"Um. I'm just going to pretend I know what you're talking about."

She giggled.

So they sat there for some time, just talking.

The next morning, Hermione woke up, with her head against Blaise's shoulder. She jumped up, waking him as well.

They glanced at each other. "Let us never speak of this again." he said.

"It never happened."

"What never happened?"

She grinned. He grinned back.

She thought "He really _isn't _that bad, is he? All these years of hating him, just because he's a Slytherin, when I could have had a really great friend…"

Later that night, both Blaise and Hermione were patrolling the area.

They weren't in the same area and were quite surprised when they coincidentally bumped into each other.

"Oh, hello," said Hermione, smiling.

"Hey," he replied, smiling back.

"Patrol buddy?" she asked, grinning.

He smirked. "Can't stay away from me that long, Granger?" it was a joke and she knew it and she knew that it was a 'yes'.

"You wish."

He grinned.

They wandered around for a bit, chatting, until Blaise froze. He gestured for Hermione to look where he was looking. A dark, hooded figure had come into view. He, or she, was too tall to be a student.

How had he gotten in Hogwarts?

Oh shtick. He saw them.

"Crucio!" he cried, whipping out his wand.

Hermione felt a searing pain in… on… _everywhere._ She was aching all over, but not in a muscle cramp type way, but like someone had stabbed her everywhere.

She crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach, and squeezing her eyes shut tight.

"Hermione!" cried Blaise. She managed to look at him. He looked like thunder. He was facing the figure, and said "Petrificus totalus!" before the man could Crucio or Avada Kedavra him. Some heads popped out from their dorms to see what all the commotion was about. A girl screamed and some ran for help.

Blaise was looking at Hermione in horror. He fell to his knees next to her. Never in any of the many books he had read had he seen anything about reversing the cruciactus curse. He swore to himself. He was so _stupid._ She was in so much pain!

Okay. Tactic no. 2. Talk to her. Take her mind off the problem.

"Hermione?" he asked, touching her shoulder.

"I'm… fine." She lied in a strained voice.

"No, you're not fine right now, but you _will _be. Hang on, okay? Just… breathe. Slowly. You'll be okay."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

The nurse and Dumbledore and McGonagall and Snape and the whole staff came.

Dumbledore uttered a spell and Hermione relaxed, sinking to the floor, unconscious.

The hooded figure was then taken away and Hermione was taken to the hospital wing.

Blaise was ordered to do crowd control, so he couldn't go with her.

Soon enough, everyone was safely in their dorms, the gates and all entrances had been locked and Hogwarts was quiet once more.

Blaise sighed and rubbed his forehead. His head was aching.

He went to the Hospital wing immediately, but the nurse wouldn't allow him to see her. So he had no choice but to go back to the dorm. It was strangely quiet and empty without Hermione.

--

The next day, Hermione didn't come for any lessons. As soon as he had a free period, he insisted on seeing Hermione. By 'insisted', he meant 'flirted with the nurse who was quite young, into letting him in'. Well, she _was _young. And blonde. With blue eyes. And she was the type to swoon when a guy like him flirted with her.

Hermione was in bed, looking incredibly bored. She perked up when she saw him.

"Hello!"

"Hi. How are you?"

"Um. I feel like a hippogriff has been breakdancing on my chest, and my head aches, but otherwise, I'm fine."

He grinned.

Then he remembered the flowers in his hand, and, looking very embarrassed, handed them to her. They were a beautiful bouquet of roses, daisies, freesias and white lilies.

She blushed. "Oh, Blaise, they're gorgeous!"

He scuffed the toe of his shoe on the floor, not looking up.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He mumbled, blushing even darker.

"How did you get in here, anyway? The nurse told me she wasn't going to let anyone in to see me."

Regaining his usual air of confidence, he said arrogantly, "I have my ways…"

"No, really, she told me she would kill anyone who came in."

"I flirted with her," he said, sounding proud of himself.

She snorted. "I would have liked to see that."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I brought your homework. And a couple of books in case you got bored." He showed her a bunch of books which he had brought.

"Yay! Finally something to _do._"

He grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

For the next few days, much to Hermione's surprise, Blaise mainly hung out with her in the hospital wing.

He brought her chocolates and told her what was going on in the school.

He joked around with her and she was having a LOT of fun. He did his homework with her, and read with her.

One day, the nurse came in. "You're still here? I thought you said you would leave in ten minutes. It's been an hour!"

Blaise winked at Hermione and slowly stood up.

"Have I ever told you how gorgeous you look, when the sun shines on your hair like that? You look like an _angel._" He spoke slowly with a sincere look in his eyes.

"You know, I would really like to meet up with you sometime…"

The nurse was blushing away. "You would?" her voice was about eight octaves higher than normal.

"Yes, I would. What do you say? You, me, tomorrow?"

She nodded, looking very delirious, and walked out, completely forgetting why she had come in, in the first place.

"You are so _bad._" Said Hermione, faking anger.

"I try." He bowed, dramatically.

She giggled. "That poor woman is probably in the bathroom, hyperventilating."

He shrugged modestly. "I have that effect on most people."

"Shut up!"

He grinned.

"You're such a flirt!"

"It's why the ladies love me!" he stretched out his arms casually.

She remembered that it was exactly what Ron had said. But when Blaise said it, he sounded… adorable.

Just then, Ron and Harry came in. Coincidentally, up until now, despite the frequency with which Blaise visited Hermione, he had never bumped into Harry and Ron, who also visited Hermione once a day.

"You!" cried Harry, instantly protective of Hermione.

Blaise stood and held up his hands to show that he was innocent.

"Hermione, is he harassing you? I swear, if he laid a finger on you, I will-"

"Relax, Harry. Blaise is just visiting me."

Harry relaxed. "Oh. Sorry." He apologized to Blaise. "It's just the Slytherin thing. No offense." Thank God he didn't bug her about why he was visiting her.

"None taken." He smiled good-naturedly and sat down again.

Ron, however, appeared to be having a seizure. "BLAISE?" he spat the word out.

"Yes?" asked Blaise, smirking.

"You're down to FIRST NAMES WITH A SLYTHERIN?"

"Ron," said Harry, "there's no rule that says you can't be friends with a Slytherin.

He sounded stern.

Ron didn't care.

"But Harry! He's… he's FILTH!"

"I'm sitting right here, you know…"

"Shut up, Zabini." Said Ron irritably.

"Ronald, if you can't keep a civil tongue in your head, then I suggest you get lost before I hurt you."

Ron looked at her pityingly. "You don't _actually _think that he gives a damn about you, do you? It's because he's Head Boy and you're Head Girl. It's all an act to keep up appearances."

"Ronald Arthur Weasley, get out of here or I _will _make you feel physical pain like you've never felt it before." She sounded perfectly serious.

Ron looked hurt. "Don't you go and make _me _the bad guy, here! We all know who that is!" he looked pointedly at Blaise, who grinned, which seemed to irritate Ron more than anything, which just made Blaise grin some more.

Ron left, briskly, soon to be followed by an apologetic looking Harry.

"You know, I'm not friends with you to keep up appearances, or anything." He sounded sincere.

She smiled and said "I know". She did, too, but it felt better to hear him say it.

"I'm sorry about Ron, though. He isn't usually like that- well, he is usually like that, but you get the point."

"It's okay. It was actually quite fun to watch him turn as red as his hair."

She laughed.

"You know what, Hermione? I think this is the beginning of a beautiful thing."

"Friendship." She corrected, ignoring the rush of pleasure she felt as he said that. "The line is "this is the-"

"Whatever."

--

Over the next few weeks, Hermione and Blaise grew closer than ever.

Hermione knew everything about Blaise and he knew everything about her.

She had memorized every feature of him. From his lean figure, to his deep brown eyes and inky black hair and smile, his lovely smile, every detail was etched into her memory.

He, on the other hand, had memorized every detail of her.

She was beginning to think she may have a bit of a crush on him.

They sat together every day in the library. She was even beginning to warm up to his sarcastic jokes.

Soon enough, some random holiday came which Dumbledore decided to give them. Most of the students were going home, but both Blaise 

and Hermione were staying back. Their conversation went something like this:

"So, are you going home for the holidays?" asked Blaise.

"No, my parents have gone to Paris so I'll be alone at home if I go back, anyways. What about you?"

"No. home isn't… exactly the best place for me right now. My parents… they're having some problems." He said awkwardly.

"Oh."

"So I'll be staying back, too." he smiled, regaining his usual good humor.

She smiled back.

--

That night, people were streaming out of the school grounds. Blaise and Hermione, once again, were doing crowd control together.

At around 11 pm, everyone was gone. Except for the few students staying back, of course.

They headed back to their dorm together.

"Goodnight, Hermione," he said as he went into his room.

"Goodnight," she said, smiling.

The next morning, Hermione woke up at the luxuriously late hour of eight.

Blaise, as far as she knew, was still asleep.

She showered, got dressed, made her bed, tidied up her room and fell onto her bed, again, with a book. It was cold, but she didn't fell like messing up her bed again.

There was a knock on her door. "Blaise?" she asked.

The door opened. "Morning," he greeted her, grinning at her.

"Morning,"

"Um, I'm getting a coffee, you want anything?"

"No thanks."

"Okay then."

She sighed. He was so _cute._ As out of character as it sounded.


End file.
